


Sweet Interruption

by IronLlama



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Cloak of Levitation (Marvel), Getting Together, Halloween, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:27:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28149078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IronLlama/pseuds/IronLlama
Summary: Stephen's plans to spend Halloween night studying alone at the sanctum are dashed by insistent knocking and a sweet surprise.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Comments: 5
Kudos: 85





	Sweet Interruption

Stephen sat cross-legged on the sofa, book open in his lap as a fire flickered to life in the fireplace and cast the room in a soft, orange glow. Beside him on the coffee table was a freshly made cup of tea and a small stack of books borrowed from the library. As he focused his attention on the book in his lap, the cloak of levitation, which had been hovering nearby, moved to float near the fire seemingly basking in its warmth.

The fireplace was the only source of light within the sanctum in an attempt to ward off this year's hoard of trick or treaters. The last year had been spent dealing with constant interruptions and insistent banging at the sanctums door. Stephen was determined to spend this year in peace with a nice cup of tea and some much desired quiet. Wong on the other hand had left not long ago to Kamar-Taj in order to avoid the disturbance himself, leaving Stephen to ride out the night alone.

An hour into the night and three cups of tea downed. Stephen was just cracking open the second book when three consecutive knocks at the sanctums doors echoed throughout the building. A scowl found its way to his lips as the cloak floated over and laid itself on his shoulders in what he wanted to interpret as some form of sympathy. He tried to return to his book, opening it to the first page. A single trick or treater in an hour. Already better than last year, though still highly disruptive to his studies and his patience.

Another set of three knocks, slightly louder than the last. With a huff, Stephen slammed the book shut, wincing as pain shot through his hands. The cloak quickly floated up and spread itself out in front of him, its corners flaring out towards him. It knew Stephen well enough by now to have foreseen the man's plan to go storm the doors and tell whoever it was to stop there insistent knocking and leave. Stephen felt like that grumpy old man yelling at kids to get off his lawn. At least he could understand his frustration.

"I know." Stephen grumbled angrily as he reached past the cloak and picked up a fresh cup of tea, his hand shaking a little worse after his stunt. "Thank you."

Satisfied, the cloak returned to its spot near the fireplace, turned slightly to face Stephen. He should have felt insulted that it felt the need to keep an eye on him, but he found himself feeling grateful for the small gesture. Taking a sip of his tea, he tensed slightly as a high pitched ringing suddenly filled the silence.

Blinking, he placed his cup down and reached into his pocket, pulling out the culprit of this latest nuisance. His new, sleek cellphone. The latest and best model money could buy, gifted to him by Tony after the man discovered he still had a rather old and outdated model. He had tried to avoid accepting the gift, but no amount of excuses or downright refusals had been enough for Stephen to escape the inevitable and in the end Tony won. Stephen made a mental note to change the ring tone to something more subtle as he answered the call. He didn't need to check the caller ID to know who it was. Only one person had this number, that he was aware of.

"Tony."

"Stephen." Stephen could practically hear the smile on the other man's face as he copied his bland greeting.

He couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips, "To what do I owe the pleasure of you calling? I thought you were attending some party? Halloween and all that."

Stephen remembered getting an invitation a couple weeks back, hand delivered by the host himself, Tony Stark. Unable to disappoint the man face to face, Stephen had taken the cowards way out and accepted the invite on the spot only to send a text a few days later with some excuse to why he could no longer attend. Not even a phone call. The reply had been understanding yet held a slight tone of accusation, something he hadn't figured was possible till he received the text.

A small chuckle from Tony drew him back to the present.

"Throwing it actually, but don't worry about that, I'm pretty sure everyone's too drunk by now to even notice I'm gone."

Stephen paused at that, "Gone, gone where?"

He swears by the Vishanti he could hear the man's smile grow wider, "About that, where are you?"

"The sanctum." Stephen's mouth moved before he could filter his own thoughts. He closed his eyes and fought back the groan building up in his throat. His excuse had him away from the sanctum for the night, too busy to attend Tony's party.

"Are you serious?" Tony sounded slightly exasperated, but laughed. "Stephen answer the damn door and let me in before I freeze to death out here. Unless of course you want to be cleaning up my body in the morning, cause I'm not leaving till one of those things happens. Preferably the first."

To make his point clear the man knocked on the door; three loud consecutive knocks just like the others. Stephen's eyes flew open as the cloak shot up and towards him, fabric waving in excitement. When had it grown so fond of the billionaire.

"Stephen?"

"Sorry, I'll be there in a minute."

He hung up the call before Tony could get another word in, his ears burning as he took his time putting his phone away. The desire to run and hide, to portal to somewhere else creeped into his mind, but he quickly shook it off. That desire seemed to spring up more often, especially when in the presence of Tony. The man's warm brown eyes and dazzling smile trained squarely on him did things to his heart and had the unfortunate affect of turning him into a blushing mess. Thankfully those times had been easy enough to talk his way out of, a skill he surely mastered by now.

This time was different however as he royally blew his cover to smithereens with two simple words. Nice going genius. Standing up, the cloak wrapped itself around his shoulders as he made his way over to the front doors. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and was met with a sight that had him giving Tony a more than once over.

There stood Tony Stark, dressed not in a fancy suit, but rather what appeared to be Iron Man sweat pants and a matching Iron Man hoodie. He held something in his hand that Stephen couldn't make out, half hidden behind his back. He smiled brightly at Stephen, causing his ears to burn further.

Stephen cleared his throat and stepped aside to let Tony in. "I believe you said something about not wanting to freeze to death?"

"I did. So nice of you to remember." Tony walked inside and made a point of shifting whatever it was he held out of sight as Stephen closed the door. "So this is what you've been doing instead of, what was it again? Fighting some sort of tentacle monster or something right?"

Tony smiled playfully as he tilted his head towards the sitting area where Stephen had made himself comfortable for the past hour.

"Tony, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"No." Stephen blinked as Tony held up a hand to stop his talking, his smile growing more gentle. "Don't. I get it, parties aren't your thing. I'm just curious why you didn't tell me the truth. Despite what some people may try to tell you, I can take no for an answer."

"I was being selfish," Stephen looked away, unable to look him in the eyes, "You seemed excited for me to attend and clearly me saying no would have ruined that. I couldn't stand to see you disappointed."

Tony's fond laugh made Stephen look back at the man. He shook his head and looked at Stephen with amusement twinkling in his eyes; those eyes that held Stephen's attention and made it harder to breathe. "Well in that case we need to set one thing straight here, it wasn't you attending the party that I was looking forward to."

"What do you mean?" Stephen's brows furrowed in confusion.

"I mean-" Tony took a hesitant step towards him, his smile faltering for a second-"I was looking forward to hanging out with you tonight. Party or no party, just to make that clear in case it wasn't already."

Stephen found himself at a loss for words. Tony was looking forward to spending Halloween with him and he so stupidly turned him down, choosing instead to spend the night alone with a bunch of dusty, old books. As if sensing his distress, the cloak pulled away from his shoulders and floated over to Tony, wrapping itself around his shoulders in a hug and earning a laugh from him.

"Of course I'm happy to see you too." He ran his fingers along the hem, earning a delighted shake from the cloak before he fixed his eyes on Stephen again. "So what do you say? Up for hanging out or would you rather I left you two alone to your...studying? Are you really studying on Halloween? Even I take a break from my workshop on the holidays."

"I don't celebrate it so-" Stephen blurted out as a small blush came to his cheeks. "Of course that doesn't mean I'm not up for hanging out. I would love to, actually."

"Good, cause otherwise that would mean I smuggled this out for nothing and I really don't think I can eat all of these on my own. Actually I probably could, but shouldn't." Tony finally revealed the item he'd been hiding from Stephen and he couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of his chest. The billionaire had brought along a big, Halloween bag of assorted chocolates.

"Should you even eat half of that on your own in one night? The sugar alone will rot your teeth."

"I'm sorry, I thought you used to be a surgeon, not a dentist." Tony teased as he made his way over to the couch, cloak still bundled around his shoulders. "You do make a good point however and I completely agree. Too much for one night. So how about we eat half the bag now and save the rest for later?"

Stephen's steps faltered as Tony shot him a playful smirk and flopped down onto the couch, patting the spot next to him invitingly. He cleared his throat again and sat down beside the man as he tore open the bag.

"I'm sure we can think of a date. A day, to eat the rest." Stephen quickly added as the cloak vibrated gently in what seemed to be a laugh. It certainly wasn't helping anything.

"Oh don't worry, I'll plan the perfect date." Tony, the bastard, winked as he tipped the bag towards him in offering. "Y'know, to eat the rest."

Stephen resisted the urge to quip back, instead settling to take a tootsie roll and ignore the growing swarm of butterflies that were currently making a home in his stomach. Tony joined him in grabbing some chocolates and the two settled into a comfortable talk about Tony's recent projects and Stephen's recent trip to another dimension.

Throughout the night the two found themselves gradually growing closer until they were both leaning against one another. Stephen once again sat cross-legged and leaned against Tony who was using Stephen's shoulder as a makeshift pillow, his feet pulled up sideways on the couch. The cloak was comfortably sat over their laps, occasionally batting playfully at Tony's hand, the man more than happy to engage. Tony was currently talking about his most recent upgrade for the Spider-Man suit, his words beginning to slur as he fought to keep his eyes open. Stephen smiled fondly down at the man.

"As riveting as it is to learn about turning fabric bulletproof, I believe it's time you call it a night." Tony looked offended and ready to argue when Stephen continued. "I could also use the sleep."

He knew it wasn't fair, using himself, but Tony looked down right exhausted and he knew from experience that if anything could make Tony cooperate it was knowing that doing so would benefit a friend, not just himself. It seemed to do just the trick as Tony gave a resigned sigh and stood, stretching his arms above his head. Stephen couldn't help, but stare at the way his back arched and felt his face flush at the small moan that escaped Tony's lips.

"I'll give Happy a call, shouldn't be more than a few minutes before he-"

"Stay."

Tony whirled around to face Stephen, his brows shooting into his hairline. Stephen wasn't sure where that had come from, but he couldn't take it back now. He didn't want to. Clearing his throat, he stood slowly, the cloak assisting him as his legs ached and protested.

"You can stay here the night. We have a guest room of course, but if you wanted you could always-" Stephen was sure he looked as awkward as he felt, unable to finish the statement, but Tony didn't comment on it and simply gave him one of his award winning smiles.

"How could I say no to such a tempting offer?" Tony yawned and stretched again. "Just sleeping this time, but perhaps next time-"

Stephen rolled his eyes at that, but found himself desperately trying to rid the image it produced in his mind. He turned back towards the couch and couldn't help, but chuckle. "Looks like we're both going to wish I was a dentist after all."

Tony turned as well and laughed at the empty candy bag. "Maybe, but don't think this changes anything. I'll make sure there's more for our date."

Stephen shook his head, but smiled happily as he and the cloak led a half-asleep Tony up to Stephen's bedroom. Tony was out like a light the second his head hit the pillow and Stephen followed suit not long after, the cloak draped over the two of them, providing some extra warmth.

Wong found the three of them the next day after his return from Kamar-Taj still asleep and tangled together in a mess of limbs and fabric. He shut the door quietly and retreated to the library to do some meditation. He needed to prepare for what would certainly be a lot more visits from Tony Stark.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is rather late for Halloween, but it was the first ever Ironstrange fic I wrote so I hope y'all enjoy it!


End file.
